Could Syriza bring same-sex marriage to Greece?
The radical left-wing Syriza party has swept to power in Greece after a dramatic General Election victory.
After this month’s election, the anti-austerity party is set to pick up 149 of the 300 seats in the Greek Parliament with 36.34% of the vote – more than doubling the number of seats it had in 2012.
Syriza is the only Greek parliamentary party to have previously expressed support for same-sex marriage, with new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calling for a number of gay rights reforms in the past.
Same-sex couples are banned from adopting in Greece, and the country does not recognise same-sex relationships. Syriza tabled a bill that would have given couples cohabitation rights in 2013, but was defeated on the measure.
However, the party has appeared to back off its socially liberal stance in the past year as it sought a more mainstream appeal – with Mr Tsipras walking back his prior comments on the issue.
When asked about same-sex adoption recently, he said: “It is a difficult subject that requires dialogue. There are contradictions in the scientific community about this and we will not include it in our policy program.”
The party’s coalition with right-wing Greek Independents is also likely to rule out any progress on gay rights – the party is aligned with Syriza on some economic issues, but actively opposes gay rights.
Notoriously homophobic Greek Independent MP Nikos Nikolopoulos previously labelled Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his partner “FAGGOT MATES”.
Mr Tsipras was sworn in as Prime Minister this afternoon.
